views of enlightened officers may thus be thoroughly mastered, and valuable notes and memoranda may be multiplied. But no study will supply the place of personal experience; and so long as an officer has not himself mixed with the people, and come into immediate contact with them, as their District Officer, his opinions cannot, properly speaking, be called his own, since they are grounded, not upon personal observation, but upon the reports of others.'
In Thomason's view the cardinal matter is this, that the European officer should be accustomed to walk alone in his responsibility and to stand on his own basis; should see, think and act for himself and be answerable for the result. For anyone who has passed through this ordeal, the Secretariat of the Government is a most favourable sphere. His practical knowledge is utilized by the Government, his ideas expand, his qualities become appreciated by the dispensers of fortune. But for one who begins life as Under-Secretary, and so rises to be Secretary, without having gone through the practical ordeal, the Secretariat is an unfavourable sphere. He becomes skilful in interpreting and expressing the thoughts of others. But after all, the thoughts are not his, and he is not responsible for the consequence if they are carried into effect. And there is always a fear lest men, who have passed brilliantly through the serene air of the Secretariat, should fail if transported into the lower atmospheric strata, with all the troublous gusts of practical life. This was just the danger and this the temptation, to which the career of Thomason was
